Quiet Attentions
by INMH
Summary: Based off a prompt from comment fic: "The Vampire Diaries, Damon/Elijah, courting." Slight AU, post-3.14 "Dangerous Liaisons".


Quiet Attentions

**Rating:** R/M

**Genre:** Romance/Drama

**Summary:** Based off a prompt from comment_fic: "The Vampire Diaries, Damon/Elijah, courting." Slight AU, post-3.14 "Dangerous Liaisons".

**Author's Note:** YES… I wanted to do it longer. And as usual, I meant to finish it in a reasonable amount of time, but that didn't happen. So now it's done… A few months later. GO ME.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Vampire Diaries. It belongs to L.J. Smith/The CW.

()()

"Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood."

**-Laurence Sterne**

()()

The bed is soft beneath his back, and the Original is heavy on top of him.

"Homosexuality was frowned upon when I was human," Elijah whispers into his ear, and he sounds breathless. Damon feels a surge of triumph at that. "It was partly because of our religious beliefs, but mainly because two men or two women on their own can't create children, and that disrupts bloodlines and inheritance structures."

It sounds reasonable enough. But then, Elijah could make dancing naked on the Empire State building sound reasonable if he tried hard enough.

()()

There were the looks.

Damon wasn't stupid enough to try and deny that Elijah was one-hundred percent, grade A, top-dollar sex-on-a-stick. He just _was_. He could hear all the ladies' hearts flutter when Elijah walked into the room, when he smiled that suave and disarming smile, when he acted so utterly polite and charming and unlike the sociopath that Damon knew lurked beneath.

It was _because_ Damon knew of the Elijah that could keep a straight face whilst ripping someone's heart out (an activity that he did way too much to _not_ enjoy at least a little) that he was acutely aware of Elijah's act. It was also partially because Damon was no saint himself, and he'd used similar methods to charm victims/humans and gain their trust.

But every little thing he did with his eyes, with his face, with his mouth and hands and posture, screamed "I'm trying to make you trust me so that you don't figure out that I'm a vampire". He charmed Mrs. Lockwood, Jenna, and even Elena a bit. The guy was a class act.

So, in a few encounters following the pencil-in-the-neck incident, Damon was more than slightly surprised to see some of those little gestures directed at him. The brightening of the eyes, that strange smirk, the miniscule little movements he made with his hands: Not only did they say "I'm trying to charm you", but Damon was also detecting a note of "Come hither" in them.

_There is something seriously off with my body-language-to-English translator._

()()

"Frowned upon, but not necessarily forbidden." Elijah punctuates that with a nip on thin skin that makes Damon hiss, and he can feel blood sliding up and over his collarbone, onto his shoulder and down into his shirt. "No one was particularly concerned if the hormonal teenagers groped each other in the shadows so long as we were still content to ultimately get married and have children."

Damon supposed that that point was moot now: He had yet to hear of a vampire conceiving anything viable with a human (or another vampire, for that matter). But then, one of the drawbacks of being a dick was that people didn't always tell you that kind of stuff.

()()

Then there were the Knight-in-Shining-Armor acts.

Okay, so the argument that Damon was in the process of keeping Elena safe, which Elijah wanted, was a pretty valid one. What precisely he wanted her safe _for_ was up for debate (Because Damon didn't trust the Original as far as he could throw him), but whatever the reason was, Damon was protecting Elena, and so when Damon needed saving, Elijah stepped in.

First it was Elena's stupidity-disguised-as-nobility move with the vampires looking for the doppelganger. "Thank you for coming," she said. _Thank you for coming?_ Damon had been ready to feed her some blood and snap her neck just to shut her up. He'd been strategizing, trying to think, because there were three of them against him and Rose, who also had a human to guard, and-

The wet, crackling sound of a heart being ripped from a ribcage made everyone turn towards the door.

Lo and behold, Elijah stood there in all of his literal heart-grabbing glory, looking cool and calm as he had the day Damon had first seen him.

Rose fled. _Thanks, Rose. _He thought, because he was certain that he was about to meet a very Original-y death in the form of his heart being torn violently from his chest and dropped on the floor like a used tissue. The concern was reinforced when the last two were killed similarly to the first, and Damon cringed, and now it was just him and Elena and they'd already established that Elijah was no easily kill.

…And then he'd just left.

The next time, he killed- what- four, five werewolves that had been torturing Damon? This instance was the second after the Looks only because the first time Elijah could have just as easily been protecting Elena. This time, he'd saved Damon directly (And looked damn good while doing it).

And oh yeah: He had also gotten a positively sex-appeal-ridden, half-bored stare and a hair flip from the Original.

"You realize that this is the third time I've saved your life?"

Third?

Oh, right. The witch.

Damon didn't say a word, just stared at him, and _again_, it was that almost-smile and the look in his eyes that made Damon think, _Seriously, is this guy giving me the 'Come Hither' look? _

()()

Damon sucks in a deep breath and shifts a bit. Elijah is still solid and heavy on him, though not unpleasantly so. "Daddy ever catch you in the midst of one of those grope-fests?" Maybe it's a strange question, but the memory of Mikael's hand gripping his heart is pervasive.

Elijah's smile is wry. "Not my father, actually. It was my mother."

Damon tries to snort, but it comes out more like a gasp when Elijah's hands slide beneath his shirt, and _God_ does he feel like a little bitch. "Was she angry?"

Elijah actually chuckles a bit at that as his hands move higher. "She never said a word to me about it. Never mentioned it again." His expression goes ever-so-slightly solemn. "You've never met my mother. From her, it wasn't exactly surprising."

()()

Then there was the dinner party.

Oh, the dinner party.

Damon knew that they were going to screw Elijah over (in the purely metaphorical sense) that night, and so he felt more than just a bit playful himself.

"No! Nothing… _Dishonorable_. Just a… Getting to know you." Damon had given him a sugary-sweet smile that he thought effectively conveyed his bullshit innocence quite well (because even he'd admit that anyone who put all of their trust in him was an unforgivable idiot).

"Hm. Well that's good: Because, you know, although Elena and I have this deal, if you so much as make a move to cross me, I'll kill you and I'll kill everyone in this house. Are we clear?"

Wow. Elijah's 'I'm a big-scary Original and I'm threatening you' voice was oddly sexy. Was that on purpose?

Damon swallowed. "Crystal."

Throughout the evening he was playing to everyone, but occasionally he'd flash Damon a smile that said _You know I'm up to some bullshit_ and Damon, to his own surprise, found it difficult to focus on figuring out what that bullshit might be rather than the way that Elijah would occasionally bite on his lip or twirl his fork.

And maybe when Elijah got the dagger through his back, the pained grunts and gasps he'd made reminded Damon of other noises that he was more accustomed to hearing in a bedroom.

And maybe he kind of liked it.

()()

Damon feels his brain overload momentarily, everything going white when Elijah's hand slips into his pants and he starts probing. "_Fuck_."

"_Shh_." Elijah purrs into his ear. "I don't have to remind you that our brothers are downstairs."

Damon lets out a breathless gulp and tries to make it as quiet as possible. "Then maybe we- Shouldn't be doing this." He chortles a little. "They're probably killing each other right now anyway."

Elijah pulls back, and his smirk is both amused and oddly dark. "I've been throwing hints to you for a while, Damon." He remarks, fingers sliding to a place that makes Damon convulse in unexpected pleasure all while trying to stay silent. "They can wait."

()()

Confession time:

So _maybe_ that letter he'd left in Elijah's jacket pocket had been deliberately worded with innuendo embedded into it. He was Damon Salvatore- It was par for the course. And Elijah had clearly read into that innuendo, given the expression Damon had received in their forest meeting. "XO, XO-"

"Damon." His voice had been soft, quiet. He was eyeing Damon in a way that was not 'Come Hither' but rather 'I can't believe he let me out of the coffin, maybe he's trustworthy'. And for some reason, the idea of Elijah actually _trusting_ him gave Damon immense pleasure.

"Was I right to un-dagger you, or are we going to have a problem?"

There was a touch of a smirk on Elijah's face and something in his eyes that had made Damon shiver slightly.

"Well, I'm here: Let's talk."

And oh, Damon had thought that he'd been reading into those words and the posture and the _look_ just as he'd been reading into the other supposed signals he'd been getting over the course of his acquaintance with Elijah. They walked through the merry field of pretty flowers speaking of death and destruction and what in the fuck Klaus had been hiding in that last coffin.

"I don't know who… Or rather, what… Is in the coffin," Elijah said, "But I do know that we don't need it."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. I have two brothers and a sister- I've heard that you met Rebekah already- that would be more than eager to have a little chat with Klaus about their imprisonment." Damon found himself grinning at the prospect of that meeting, and wondered if those two brothers would be on the Klaus-end of the Original family spectrum or the Elijah-end. "But Klaus is paranoid. He doesn't and never will fully trust me, and he'll have an eye on and ear out for any movement in or around the coffins at all times."

Damon thought about that for a moment.

"Not if he has a Stefan-shaped distraction dancing around in front of him."

()()

Even as he starts to get swept away by the pleasure, Damon finds himself wondering what might happen if Stefan and Klaus were suddenly to realize just how long he and Elijah have been gone. Wonders if they might come looking, wonders if they might walk in and see this.

If nothing else, they'll become allies purely out of the shared experience of their horror at the scene: Their beloved big brothers dry-humping on a bed with Elijah's hand in Damon's pants.

Damon starts to laugh, and eventually the sound of his blood rushing in his ears as his orgasm hits drowns it out.

()()

"I need to get some air."

Boy, did he ever.

Elijah had been directly in his line of view for the last hour and a half. He _had_ to be playing with him, he had to be: There was only so many times a man could lick his lips like that before you started to get suspicious. And if Damon had ever felt the 'Come Hither' vibe from Elijah, he was feeling it that night.

Damon felt a somewhat obscene bit of relief that Elijah seemed to be very over Tatia, though he didn't know why; it wasn't like he'd come to the house that night planning on jumping the Original's bones.

_He might just be asking for it. We've had dinner together twice (though with other people)_, _he seems to get off on __**hurting**__ me even though he's saved my ass a few times now, and goddamn it it's like he __**wants**__ me to ask if that's the best and only thing that he can do with his tongue- Probably the most covert way anyone's ever asked me to hop into bed with them before. _

"I'll take care of this." He heard Elijah say to Klaus and Stefan as he left the room. A moment later, the sound of footsteps following after him could be heard on the hardwood floor. He wandered cautiously into the room where the two coffins were placed, half-waiting for Klaus to come darting in and calmly-threateningly ask him to find a different room to chat in. He didn't come- But Elijah did.

Without a word, the older vampire carefully opened the coffins- Damon stood off to the side, unable to see the bodies within- and swiftly pulled a dagger from each, placing them on a silver tray on a table near the door. "Done," He mouthed at Damon, clearly cautious of Klaus.

"So do we go back out there and stall?" Damon asked, voice as quiet as he could manage to make it. "Or do we wait here?"

"Stefan is unquestionably wearing on Niklaus's patience, possibly vice-versa. Stefan won't leave without you, and if we return he or Niklaus may demand that we cut to the chase in terms of the deal."

Stall, then. "How about a tour of the house?" Damon threw an exaggerated wink over his shoulder as he walked out of the room, turning around before he could see Elijah's reaction. The Original followed after him.

"Was that a subtle proposition, Damon?"

"Not as subtle as those propositions you've been throwing at me, big guy."

Silence.

Damon stopped short, and then turned around, an odd look on his face. Elijah looked impassive- more importantly, he wasn't exactly _denying_ anything. "…Well?"

Elijah shrugged, like he had no idea what Damon was talking about. "Well, what?"

"This is the part where you say 'I haven't the slightest idea what you might be referring to, Damon. Would you care to elaborate'?" Elijah smirked, and Damon knew his impression was spot-on.

"Is it?"

"_Yeah_, because _not_ saying it might imply to me that you were doing it on pur…" Damon trailed off, because the expression on Elijah's face was a serene one, one that boasted _Yes, yes, come on, keep the cogs turning, Damon, you almost have it. _

So…

The pencil in the neck.

The heart-ripping.

The looks at dinner (both dinners).

The pencil in the neck.

The frigging _hair-flipping_ after saving him from the werewolves.

The Come-Hither body language.

_The pencil in his goddamn neck._

Damon started to laugh.

As it was, Elijah was far from accustomed to being laughed at by anyone but his siblings, and his eyes narrowed. "What about that is humorous? Enlighten me."

Damon snickered and shook his head. "I knew it. I _knew_ it. You know, I thought I was wrong, because I thought a big, scary Original would have a better way to tell someone he wanted to go out with them than pulling their pigtails."

"I don't understand."

"Dude, _five year-olds_ do what you did- Well, no, okay, they don't stab people with pencils. But they do bitchy little things-" Elijah's expression darkened slightly. "-because for some stupid reason they can't say what they want out loud."

Elijah sniffed. "I prefer to think of it as courting."

"I prefer to think of it as your own special brand of crazy shining through. If it makes you feel any better, Klaus is still light-years ahead of you as far as bat-shitted-ness goes."

"That isn't a word."

"I made one."

The Original's eyes narrowed fractionally. "You irritate me."

"Yeah, well, if you didn't like it you wouldn't have been _courting_ me, now would-?"

Elijah slammed him into the wall and kissed him.

()()

"We should really get back down there."

Damon is delightfully ruined, like a blown-out light-bulb with not a glimmer of electricity left in it. Elijah is motionless, but he can tell the Original isn't half as beaten as he. "Perhaps we should."

Abruptly, the sound of footsteps and the door to the bedroom opening make the pair jump and turn around. At first thought, they both think that it _must_ be Klaus and Stefan. It takes Damon a few seconds to realize that they're brothers, all right; but neither of them is Stefan. Or Klaus, for that matter.

The smaller of the two, who looks like he jumped straight out of 'Newsies', bursts out laughing before quickly slapping both hands over his mouth. His eyes dance with mirth, and Damon thinks _Oh fuck, he's on the Klaus-end of the crazy-spectrum_. It's just something in his expression that sets off alarms in Damon's head. The taller of the two, who could have been any extra in a medieval movie involving witch-burning, looks mildly disturbed.

"Hello, Elijah." He remarks lightly. "Nice to see you."

"Finn," Elijah responds with the most _insane_ composure Damon has ever seen, standing up and straightening his suit. "Kol. It's nice to see you both up and about." Damon sees that, at some point, Elijah fixed his pants as well and makes a note to thank him later. Not the best way to be introduced to two new Originals, especially one that had that same bat-shit-insane-smell as Klaus.

"Nice to see you _up_ as well, brother." Kol chirps, grinning as his eyes dart back and forth between his brother and Damon. Elijah rolls his eyes.

"Well- Nice to meet you, Heckle and Jeckle." Damon springs off the bed, hastily straightens his clothing like he wasn't just getting a hand-job from their older brother a few minutes ago. "Shall we get to the Klaus-stabbing? Klaus-stabbage sounds good to me."

"Likewise." Kol agrees, and maybe Damon can like him.

"You two will stay hidden for now. I have a plan for your revelation."

"Theatrical as always." Finn remarks under his breath. He and Kol leave the room, surprisingly silent. If Damon didn't know for a fact that they were there, he would never have noticed their presence. Hopefully, Klaus won't either.

"Well. That was awesome."

"I thought you handled it well."

"Why _thank you_." Damon starts for the door, but then stops and turns around. "So, am I going to be subject to more of your _bizarre_ courting rituals, or do we have a-" He waves his hand vaguely. "-_thing_ now?"

Elijah shrugs. "Well, by human standards, yes. But as vampires, I think extended courting is necessary to establish a better connection. It's not like we don't have time." He smiles in a way that is unquestionably (and yet non-threateningly) foreboding.

Damon doesn't know whether to be worried or very, very excited.

-End


End file.
